Italianate Landscape with a Fountain

Inscriptions

stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

Watermark: Letters, C H

Provenance

…; from the dealer F. Muller, Amsterdam, fl. 2, to the museum (L. 2228), 1885

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1885-A-469

The artist

Biography

Albert Meyering (Amsterdam 1645 - Amsterdam 1714)

Albert Meyering (Meyeringh) was baptized on 24 September 1645 in Amsterdam’s Oude Lutherse Kerk (Old Lutheran Church).¹Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB 141, fol. 295. His parents were the painter Frederik Meyeringh (1608-1669) and Lysbeth Claesz. (?-1652) from Antwerp. His brother Hendrick Meyering (1641-1687) worked as painter and art dealer.

Albert was trained by his father. On 2 January 1672, he was still in Amsterdam, but soon afterwards he must have left the city, like many artists who escaped the aftermath of that disaster year (‘rampjaar’). Later the same year he was in Paris, and by 1673 he may have joined his friend Johannes Glauber (1656-c. 1726) in Lyon.²Drawn views of both cities are recorded in eighteenth-century sale catalogues; cf. S. Alsteens and H. Buijs, Paysages de France dessinés par Lambert Doomer et les artistes hollandais et flamands des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Paris 2008, p. 212 (n. 110). A series of six etchings by Glauber representing the Grande Chartreuse, north of Grenoble, may have been based on drawings by Meyering; cf. A. Zwollo, Hollandse en Vlaamse veduteschilders te Rome, 1675-1725, Assen 1973, pp. 20-21. According to Houbraken, they travelled together in Italy,³A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, III (1721), p. 210. where Glauber is documented in Rome (1675-76), Padua (1676) and Venice (1677-78). From the evidence of a drawing by Meyering in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (inv. no. 84 kl 2),⁴I. Veenstra and T. van Kooten, Onderweg in het landschap. Tekeningen uit de verzameling van het Kröller-Müller Museum, 1600-1900, exh. cat. Otterlo (Kröller-Müller Museum) 1996, p. 27. he must also have travelled as far south as Naples. Further travels are documented by inscribed drawings recording sites in Trieste and Carinthia (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-00-199), Cleve,⁵For instance, Paper Mill at Klarenbeek near Cleve, 1702, in the Barend Cornelis Koekoek Haus, Cleve; H. Dattenberg, Niederrheinansichten Holländischer Künstler des 17. Jahrhunderts, Düsseldorf 1967, no. 284. Brussels⁶Cf. a drawing in the sale of the collection of Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), Leipzig (C.G. Boerner), 4 November 1931, no. 144, inscribed: ‘Bockx Foort teghen Sunighen boosch onderhalf uve (probably a misreading of ‘ure’) boven Brussel’ (‘Boitsfort near the Sonian Forest 1½ hours above Brussels’). and Antwerp.⁷A drawing of St Michael’s Abbey in Antwerp was in the sale of Gerardus Schroder (?-1764, Harderwijk), Amsterdam (De Winter, IJver), 20 February 1764, Album G, no. 709; RKD excerpts, no. 1310040. A stay in Hamburg – where Glauber is documented from 1679 to 1684 – although not mentioned by Houbraken, is certain, based on other inscribed topographical drawings by Meyering, including inv. no. RP-T-1881-A-111 and two drawings in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. nos. 22149 and 22150).⁸A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), nos. 644-45. He may also have accompanied Glauber to Copenhagen, where Glauber spent six months during this period in the service of the Danish Count Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve (1638-1704).

Meyering is recorded back in Amsterdam only on 20 June 1687, when he was present at the execution of his deceased brother’s will. He probably returned to the Netherlands earlier, however, for he apparently joined Glauber in producing paintings (c. 1685-87) for the palace of Soestdijk, near Hilversum. On 7 August 1688, residing in Amsterdam on the Kloveniers Burgwal, Meyering married Maria Schuurmans (c. 1645-1720), widow of a certain Niclaas Koninck.⁹Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB 696, fol. 170. In the document, Albert’s age is given as ‘42’. Some two weeks later, on 18 August, he became a citizen of Amsterdam.

Meyering belonged to the third generation of Dutch Italianate artists. As a painter, he produced classical landscapes in the manner of Gaspar Dughet (1615-1675), and as a draughtsman he is known for his topographical views. The strongest influence on his work, however, was that of his friend and travelling companion Glauber. Few of Meyering’s works are dated, mostly paintings from the 1680s, such as two examples that appeared on the Cologne art market in 1995¹⁰Sale, Cologne (Van Ham), 22 March 1995 sqq., no. 1199. and 1997,¹¹Sale, Cologne (Van Ham), 25 June 1997 sqq., no. 1326. which are dated 1682 and 1684, respectively. His graphic oeuvre, reflecting the influence of Glauber, consists of twenty-six etchings, some after his own paintings. Meyering had two pupils: Jacob Appel I (1680-1751) and the Hamburg-born painter Jacob Stockmann (c. 1670-1743).

At the time of his burial in the Oude Lutherse Kerk, Amsterdam, on 2 July 1714, he was living on the Utrechtse Straat between the Keizergracht and Kerkstraat.¹²Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB 1134, fol. 80v. His wife, Maria Schuurmans, was buried in the same church on 22 May 1720.¹³Ibid., fol. 102v.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, III (1721), p. 210; J.B. Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois, 4 vols., Paris 1753-64, III (1760), pp. 179-80; J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1843), p. 224; [O.C. Gaedechens (ed.)], Hamburgisches Künstler-Lexikon: Die bildenden Künstler, Hamburg 1854, p. 167; P. Scheltema, Aemstel’s oudheid of gedenkwaardigheden van Amsterdam, 7 vols., Amsterdam 1855-85, IV (1861), p. 67; A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aantekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten (II)’, Oud Holland 3 (1885), p. 231; A. Bredius (ed.), Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., The Hague 1915-22, I (1915), pp. 334, 343-47; VII (1922), p. 151; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 158; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXIV (1930), p. 499 (entry by M.D. H[enkel?]); H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1942, pp. 28, 60, 167, 216, 221, 301; A. Zwollo, Hollandse en Vlaamse veduteschilders te Rome, 1675-1725, Assen 1973, pp. 19-27; C. Kämmerer, Die klassisch-heroische Landschaft in der niederländischen Landschaftsmalerei, 1675-1750, Berlin 1975 (PhD diss., Freie Universität Berlin), pp. 41, 45, 46, 52, 101-7; W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York and elsewhere 1978-, VII (1978), pp. 169-94, nos. 1-26; S. Alsteens and H. Buijs, Paysages de France dessinés par Lambert Doomer et les artistes hollandais et flamands des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Paris 2008, pp. 208, 212 (n. 110); P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 541; A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, VXXXIX (2016), p. 290 (entry by I.M. Veldman); http://www.vondel.humanities.uva.nl/ecartico/persons/5235

Entry

As noted in the museum’s inventory book (‘Geetst door den tekenaar’), the present drawing was etched by the artist (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-23.522).¹⁴F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XIV (1956), no. 4. Although the drawing is indented and its verso rubbed in red chalk for transfer to the copper-plate, the final print, which reverses the composition, reveals that Meyering altered some details while etching the plate. Minor changes include increasing the gap between the donkey and the slender tree-trunks and inserting a tree stump in this space. Meyering also reduced the amount of foliage next to the monument to give it more prominence and increased the height of the screen of trees in the middle distance. By omitting the contours of the far mountain ridge, allowing parallel hatching to define the forms, he softened the overall effect and conveyed the hazy atmosphere of a distant view.

Meyering’s etching was part of a series of classical landscapes from circa 1695.¹⁵Ibid., nos. 1-12, entitled ‘Eenige Land-Schappen, geinventeert, geetzt, en uytgegeven door Albert Meyeringh in Amsterdam’. In literature, such as A. Zwollo, Hollandse en Vlaamse veduteschilders te Rome, 1675-1725, Assen 1973, p. 22, and T. Ketelsen, Die niederländischen Gemälde, 1500-1800, coll. cat. Hamburg 2001 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, vol. 2), p. 182, all twenty-seven of Meyering’s prints are often regarded as belonging to this series; however, the different dimensions suggest that the title refers only to nos. 1-12, which are of the same format. Since one of these (no. 9) was apparently made after a painting by the artist, now in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. no. 467),¹⁶Ibid. it could be that the present sheet relates to an as yet unidentified painting.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Albert Meyering, Italianate Landscape with a Fountain, Amsterdam, in or before 1695', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.55820

(accessed 3 June 2025 01:29:13).